


Wild

by sakuyamons



Category: Digimon Tamers
Genre: F/F, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 01:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7782118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakuyamons/pseuds/sakuyamons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Juri could pinpoint the exact moment where Ruki became her best friend, was at the moment she asked her to teach her how to play the Digimon Card Game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wild

**Author's Note:**

> First day of the DigiOTP day! and all of them are about this ship bc if I don't write them nobody will. Most of the fics will be situated in the same universe but you don't have to read them all for understanding.
> 
> The prompt is: your friendship is precious

It had been one whole year since the Digimon left and nobody played the card game anymore.

 

Perhaps it was because they were entering middle school and her friends wanted to leave behind the childish things behind - and Digimon was one of those things, but neither the younger children play it anymore - it was a phenomenon, that like all phenomenons, started to fade away after a while, Lee-kun says that it has probably nothing to do with the incident that nobody in the city remembers except them.

 

And she knows that the request is weird, but there’s nobody else to ask it.

 

“Ruki, can you...continue teaching me the card game?”

 

Okay, that’s a lie, she has plenty of people to ask help of, Takato would be the first option, and Hirokazu and Kenta the last, but she knows that Ruki is on a superior level playing-wise, and she doesn’t really want to play pro but…

 

“Why?” 

 

(It’s clear it’s not a _ why I should teach you _ , but  _ why do you want to learn _ ?)

 

The truth is the best answer on this situation.

 

“I want to prove something to myself.”

 

She knows that she has convinced Ruki when the other one turns around to face her, a small grin on her lips.

 

“Saturdays. At afternoon, don’t be late.”

  
  


* * *

 

 

Now, the Digital Monster Card Game isn’t difficult to learn.

 

You got the Digimon Cards - which were the ones who you were supposed to battle with and the card had basic information about if this Digimon was worth to use in the front line, the evolution requirements (if it was a jogress, like, say, imperialdramon, this part could get really complicated), their attribute, their type and so go on. Then, you had the option cards, which worked for all kinds of support, evolution included, and then you had the special and support activities, the special activities are the Digimon’s movements (Like, to say, Agumon’s Baby Flame) and the support activities, who allowed your main Digimon to pull tricks on their sleeve.

 

“There’s different formats to play the Card Game.” Ruki explained “There’s the Hyper Colliseum one - which is the one that people play at tournaments, and the ultimate battle one is the one you probably saw Dumb and Dumber play at your school.”

 

“Dumb and Dumber?”

 

“Hirokazu and Kenta.” Ruki shrugged.

 

“You’re so mean!” Juri grinned, she was right on them being dumb, though.

 

“It’s not a lie though.” The other girl replied as she put her cards away “And you know it, and besides, it’s just a nickname.” 

 

“What’s Takato-kun’s nickname?”

 

“Gogglehead.”

 

Well, that was predictable, she has heard Ruki call Takato a  _ stupid googlehead  _ a pair of times.

 

“And Lee-kun?”

 

“I don’t really have a nickname for him, he’s just Jian. _ Lee  _ if I’m mad at him.” 

 

“And me?”

 

“You’re just Juri. I don’t really think you’d like to have a nickname like those three.”

 

“I guess.”

 

And so, Ruki continued her explanation of the card game - moving onto the preparation phase, but before, just for the sake of it, Juri decides to let Ruki know.

 

“Did you know that Kenta said that girls weren’t good at this game?”

 

She really shouldn’t consider it funny, because boys can be dumb and Kenta can be dumber once he’s with Hirokazu, and she doesn’t, but she does consider funny Ruki’s reaction (she doesn’t laugh, though)

 

“He said  _ what _ ?”

 

“W-We didn’t know you then! We were talking about the Digimon Queen - you, and then he said that girls weren’t good at cards, and I said that it was awfully discriminatory.”

 

“It is, not to mention I would beat him with my eyes closed and with a fanboy desk.” Ruki took a deep breath and then focused on her cards in silence before she began to speak again “You know what? Let’s focus on learning, he’s dumb.”

 

“You’re right.” 

 

“And he won’t probably get a girlfriend.” 

 

“Yeah!” 

 

Instead of playing the game, the other girl focuses on keep explaining her the rest of the terms, such as the evolution, battle and point calculation phases, and she finishes explaining just in time, because Ruki’s grandma called them shortly after to eat lunch.

 

“Oh, yeah, Juri?”

 

“Tell me.” 

 

“Thank you for defending me, I mean, we didn’t even know each other at that time.”

 

She knows that Ruki doesn’t need defending, but her words of gratitude felt sincere, Juri shook her head, she’s sure Ruki would do the same for her.

 

“We’re both girls! And the only ones from our circle of friends if you don’t count Jianliang’s little sister, we need to stick by each other.” Juri raised her hand on the air, expecting a high five “Girl power!” 

 

Ruki stared at her for a few minutes, then stared at Juri’s hand, almost like asking what the hell was she supposed to do.

 

She  _ did  _ high-five her at the end, though.

 

* * *

It wasn’t surprising that once she taught Juri how to play the cards, the very first thing Ruki did was make her duel Kenta on a card game, though she hadn’t truly played against anyone yet, Ruki claimed that she was ready and wouldn’t take a no for an answer, it wasn’t entirely unsurprising (for Ruki, at least) that Juri had demolished Kenta in a matter of eight turns (Ruki kept count of it), it was surprising how much of bad losers boys can be at times though, Hirokazu wanted to play her now and Kenta wanted a rematch.

 

Ruki had told them that Juri didn’t had time to play with losers and they went to eat ice cream together as a celebration for Juri’s first win.

 

“That combo was awesome, by the way, where did you get that idea?” 

 

“I guess it just...happened.” Juri shrugged as she kept eating her ice cream “But now he wants a rematch.”

 

“You’ll just need to beat him again.” Ruki pointed out “Boys always give on on the second time, then you can ask Hirokazu, Jian or Takato and once you play them all, you can try to take me down.” 

 

She had seen movies and that’s what is meant to happen, the student overpassing the master - though that won’t mean that Ruki was going to let that happen easily, it was obvious that they both liked to spend time together, but from that to letting her win? Too much of a difference, and Juri would hate it if Ruki let her win.

 

“I bet I could beat you right now.”

 

“Don’t get cocky, angelface, it was just Kenta.” 

 

Juri stuck her tongue out at her and Ruki just kept eating her ice-cream.

 

She doesn’t know when she started to call Juri angelface - it just happened, but Juri never asked why, it was better than being called googlehead - in fact, it was kinda cute.

 

“Do you want to come to my house this weekend? Grandma told me to invite you to dinner and that way you can meet my mom in person. You can stay the night and call it a…” Ruki cringed at the word “...Sleepover.”

 

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go - she knew that only a few people went to Ruki’s house (actually, so far as she knows, she’s the only one aside Takato and Jian) and being invited to a sleepover sounded fun, and if she could, she would say yes and spend the entire night making jokes to make Ruki roll her eyes and perhaps to play with her hair if Ruki allowed her to.

 

But…

 

“I’m not forcing you to go.” 

 

Wow, her discomfort must be obvious.

 

“It’s not that...it’s just that…I might have to ask for permission and…”

 

“Don’t lie to me.” Ruki interrupted, her tone of voice icy cold “Just say no and that’s all.”

 

“I…”

 

“I got stuff to do, see you around.”

 

And she left before Juri could say anything else.

 

* * *

 

She didn’t expect to miss Ruki this much, and it had been three days since that day.

 

She tried to continue her life as best she could pretend that nothing happened, she beat Hirokazu and Kenta in the card game, but it wasn’t as fun as it was if Ruki wasn’t there, Takato most definitely knew something but she refused to tell him what happened, it was a silly quarrel, nothing worth worrying him about, she also doesn’t want to start a fight between him and Ruki.

 

She could have told her that she couldn’t do it because of that certain problem she had been facing, but she didn’t want Ruki to stop treating her like she had done before...like a person.

 

(Nobody likes to talk about the incident that she caused, her family refuses to talk about it and at the beginning Takato was treating her like she was something that was as fragile as an eggshell - he grew out of it, though, and perhaps it was understandable, but she didn’t want others to treat her like that)

 

So now she’s laying on her bed, reading a book for an essay about something that she doesn’t really care about and won’t probably matter in her future and she’d like to do literally anything else, when her brother knocks the door and says a girl named Ruki is on the phone and wants to talk to her.

 

As kindly she can be - she tells her brother to give her the phone and he obeys her at the instant, to then leave to keep watching anime on the living room, if Ruki called her, then it probably means that she missed her, too.

 

“R-Ruki?”

 

“Um...hi, Juri, how are you?”

 

“Good.” This was a half-truth, she had been worse, obviously “You?”

 

“Can’t complain.” Ruki said, but she sighed “Listen…” She felt Ruki taking a big breath through the phone “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted like that...you have your reasons, I presume, I know I can be mean but that isn’t a good excuse.”

 

“You’re not mean.” These aren’t just words, she doesn’t think that Ruki is mean...or at least, not to her “A bit difficult? Yes, but not mean.”

 

She almost wants to tell her that she’s sorry too.

 

“Are you doing something after school?” Ruki asks on a casual tone, making it tacitly clear that she was leaving the discussion behind.

 

“Not really, why?”

 

“Well...if you want we can play the card game after classes are over. I’ll let you win.” 

 

Juri had a mischievous smirk on her lips.

 

“You’re lying.”

 

Yes, she was, Juri would hate her if she did

 

“So, you’re up for it? We can do it anywhere you want if you don’t wanna come to my house.”

 

“Your house is fine.”

 

“...Cool, see you there then.” And after a moment, Ruki adds “I mean it, you know.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“The apologies, idiot, I do mean them.”

* * *

  
  


“I almost beat you!”

 

“No, you didn’t”

 

Yes, she almost had.

 

She really didn’t had interest in playing as a pro on Digimon tournaments - the idea sounds kinda silly, but she had picked Ruki because she was a pro, and she had witnessed the moment where Ruki had  _ switched _ to pro mode and set up a combo to initiate a counter-attack which would end up on her defeat, but still, it felt good to make Ruki intimidated enough to switch to pro mode.

 

“I would know if you let me win, and you didn’t let me, I almost beat you, admit it.” 

 

Ruki gave her a light push.

 

“Brag when you win against me, angel face.”

 

Juri stuck her tongue at her friend.

 

“I will one day.” 

 

“No, you won’t.”

 

The rest of the day goes without them doing much, playing cards gets boring after awhile, so they talk about random stuff - well, Juri does the talking, Ruki listens and sometimes she makes some sarcastic comment on response, it’s after Juri talks about the day that Takato made an own goal on Physical Education (Ruki had laughed hard at it) than she mentions that she met Ruki’s mom that same day when she went to the Matsuda bakery.

 

“Your mom is so pretty! Must run in the family.”

 

Juri didn’t know Ruki’s mom  - well, she did, she was a famous model and was on the main cover of magazines, but she didn’t knew her as her friend’s mom - but by how the meeting went through (Rumiko had literally put the phone aside to squish Juri in a hug), Rumiko-san did seem to know her.

 

“What did she say?” 

 

“That I was gorgeous and that she’s sorry that she’s never here when I come to your house but that grandma said I was the nicest girl she had ever seen and that…” There’s a slight blush on Juri’s cheeks “That you never shut up about me.”

 

Ruki rolls her eyes.

 

“Mom can be irritating.”

 

Juri slapped her in the arm.

 

“Don’t talk that way about your mom!” 

 

“Hey! What is your problem!?”

 

“Don’t talk that way about your mom.” Juri sounded deadly serious “She is a lovely person.”

 

“You don’t live with her!”

 

“Well, be grateful that you do!” 

 

Ruki was going to say something, but then she closed her mouth.

 

She knows that Ruki didn’t meant to insult her mom, she knows it by the tone that she used that she hadn't meant any harm and that her mother probably wouldn’t get too offended for it, but she knows that mothers are a sensitive topic for her, she should have thought her choice of words better.

 

“Juri, it was just a comment…”

 

“Just don’t do it, okay? Not in front of me.”

 

Looking back on it,Ruki could have just dropped the topic and move on, it was an unfortunate clash that they would get over it, and she is glad Ruki didn’t drop it - if she had, they would have continued to be occasional friends that hung out from time to time and they would have lost contact through the years, probably, instead of becoming as close as they became. 

 

“It was just a comment, Juri, it’s not like I don’t love her.” Ruki explained “It’s just that she can be so overwhelming...like...she got better but before she was... _ agh _ , though I was annoying too, but whatever, I had to do photoshoots, I have done them since I can remember and my mom is the model, not me, I hate the camera's flash and just…” She could see by the way Ruki’s hands were moving as she explained the topic that she just couldn’t find the words “ _ Agh _ . But she did get better, and as I said, it’s not like I don’t love her.”

 

“I understand where you’re saying now.” She doesn’t understand her situation, and Ruki wouldn’t understand hers, probably, but she listened to her and sometimes that’s enough “It’s just mothers are...a sensitive topic for me.”

 

“I know that.” Ruki’s hand was over hers, their fingers intervened together “Do you want to stay for dinner? Mom always eats dinner with us, that way you can know her, I probably made her sound like a tyrant that throws schedules at me, but she’s...nice, as you said.”

 

“I didn’t said she was nice, I said she was lonely.” Juri corrected with a gentle smile.

 

Ruki gave her a light squeeze.

 

“Lovely, yeah, whatever you say.”

 

* * *

 

She really didn’t meant to stay at her house that evening.

 

It wasn’t anybody's fault, Ruki’s mother got home earlier than expected and greeted both of them with a hug, then she went to switch to more comfortable clothes and then the four of them went went to eat dinner - since it was the first time Rumiko could talk with Juri properly, they did most of the talking, with occasionally Ruki exclaiming  _ Mom! _ when she said something that could shatter Ruki’s cool girl image (Not that Juri believed it, though), but when Juri was prepared to leave, a thunderstorm began and she couldn’t leave the house.

 

(Not that Ruki or her family would have allowed her to.)

 

And she has to admit, it had been fun, there had been a bad horror movie on the tv where Ruki and her had spent the whole two hours making fun of it while Juri braided Ruki’s hair ( _ “Just for tonight, don’t get used to it.” _ ) and then when the bad horror movie was over, a romcom came out but Ruki changed the channel until she found something she liked, or that she wanted to made fun of.

 

“What are you looking for?”

 

“Sometimes they do reruns of good shows at night, like,  _ Evangelion _ or  _ Lain. _ ”

 

“We should watch that Digimon anime.”

 

“You’re not being serious.”

 

“Don’t move! I’m braiding your hair and I don’t want it to go wrong, but yes, I’m serious, did you watch it?”

 

“Of course I did, how do you think I heard of the card game? Takato wears goggles on his head because Taichi, the main character wore them in the head, and then the kid who was his successor, Daisuke, wore them on the sequel.”

 

“Does that make Takato-kun the leader? Our leader?”

 

Ruki couldn’t hold back her laughter.

 

“Not a chance.”

 

“Stay still!” But then Juri was laughing too “And who would you be on the anime?”

 

“Me? Well...I would be like Yamato, I guess, his Digimon was a wolf, and mine wa-  _ is _ a fox.” Ruki goes quiet for a moment before she gasps in horror “You never watched that dumb show when you were a kid?”

 

“Nuh-uh, I guess it was never on when I watched TV.”

 

“...That’s terrible, Juri, I might sound like Takato, but that must change, they do reruns sometimes. If you want to stay to sleep some other day and we catch it we can watch it.”

 

“You called it stupid.”

 

“I watched it, I can call it whatever I want, you haven’t, hell, Takato is going to cry if he finds out that you didn’t watch Digimon Adventure.”

 

It sounded like a good offer, and perhaps the idea of staying the night wasn’t a bad idea.

 

“Ruki.” 

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I really like to spend time with you.”

 

And it was the truth, she liked her before, as an occasional friend who met through a common one, but she didn’t expect to get this close to her - she could be grumpy yet her grumpiness made her really funny at times - she never imagined that she would be here, playing with Ruki’s hair while the other girl made fun of her because she never watched Digimon Adventure when she was younger.

 

“Why do you say that?”

 

“Because I say what I think, speaking of thinking, I think that you would look like a princess with your hair loose, it’s beautiful.” 

 

“Thank you, mom.”

 

“If a model says it then I’m right.”

 

“Shut up, Juri.” Every time Ruki told her to shut up, it almost a dare to make Juri talk even more “But...I do like spending time with you.”

 

“Yeah, your mom told me.” 

 

She didn’t had the need to see her friend’s face to know she was blushing.

 

Actually it was thanks to Ruki’s mom that Juri did a fascinating discovery -they had talked about lots of stuff, but Ruki’s mom kinda called her Ruki’s best friend and she had been embarrassed (Ruki’s really pale, so when she blushes it’s as subtle as the loud rock music that she likes) and had looked everywhere except where Juri was sitting, then she did what she did best, she acted cool and pretended it didn’t happen.

 

“I thought Jian and Takato were your best friends.”

 

“I can have more than one best friend.” The other replied with a yawn “But it would be awkward if I called you a best friend and you didn’t consider me your best friend, that can happen.”

 

Juri was touched.

 

“Ruki, you’re a sweetheart inside that exterior.”

 

“I am not.” 

 

Ruki did love to contradict her, didn’t she?

 

“Can I ask you something?”

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

“When I asked you why you wanted to learn to play the Digimon game, you said you wanted to prove something to yourself, what was it?”

 

Juri didn’t say anything for a while, she untangled one of the braids she had done and started to tangle it all over again, it was Ruki’s fault for moving so much that it didn’t end right.

 

“I...I really wanted a Digimon.” It was a silly way to start, but she had to continue “But I kinda wanted it because Takato-kun had Guilmon, who was so cute, and then I got my wish granted...but I never felt myself good enough to be Leomon’s tamer, even though he thought I was.” Soon it would be one year and a half, but it wasn’t getting easier to talk about him “I mean, we only had one battle together and then he...he died because of me.”

 

“It wasn’t your fault, I almost lost Renamon on that battle too.”

 

Yes, and Beelzebumon absorbed Taomon’s power, but Ruki and Jian managed to save their Digimons at time, she didn’t.

 

“But what happened after was my fault -”

 

“Don’t say that.”

 

“Guilmon’s dark evolution…The D-Reaper...everyone got hurt because of me, and I have to accept it if I want to move on…” Juri bit her lip “And I wasn’t really good with the card slash, maybe if I had been, bad things wouldn’t have happened, that’s why I wanted the lessons, to prove myself that maybe in another universe I would have been a good tamer, even if it doesn’t really matter now.” 

 

Juri couldn’t remember when she stopped doing her friends’ hair or when Ruki turned to face her — sometimes when she got so  _ involved  _ on her memories she could lost contact with reality — but she came back to the present not long before Ruki pulled her into a hug.

 

“It’s not your fault, nothing that happened was your fault.” And Juri had heard those words multiple times, but yet she has problems believing them “I mean it, Megidramon wasn’t your fault and the D-Reaper shit? It’s more our responsibility than yours, yeah, we had problems going on, but we shouldn’t have...I shouldn’t have...I mean we didn’t know how to...comfort you...I still don’t know how and…” Ruki sighed as she tightened the hug “I can only do this, for now.”

 

“It’s not your fault either, then, I might have gotten lost but...you guys saved me, and I’ll always be grateful for that.”

 

And Ruki isn’t the only one whose family situation improved since the whole Digimon thing, she was trying to fix her relationship with her step-mom and her dad was trying to do the same with her, small progress is still progress, when Ruki finally released her from the hug, Juri found herself feeling a bit better, she knew Ruki wasn’t one to give hugs often, and it had felt nice - but she still had that warm feeling in her stomach to find someone that she could trust with all those bad things that sometimes plagued her mind - aside of Takato-kun, of course, she trusts him completely, but sometimes talking with girls is easier.

 

“Shit, it’s 1 A.M.” Ruki noticed “Shouldn’t we go to sleep?”

 

“Well - about that…” 

 

She might as well tell her.

 

“Do you have problems sleeping?”

 

“Kinda…” Juri began “I can sleep, and it doesn’t happen every night, but it happens enough...I...get nightmares, very vivid, but they’re not night terrors because I remember them.” Ruki did not ask what the nightmares were, Juri appreciated that “And I wake up sweating and screaming sometimes, and that’s why I didn’t want to stay the night, I didn’t want to scare you.”

 

If it happens tonight…

 

“I really can’t do much about it.” Ruki said “But...if it happens, I’ll be there, I mean, this is my house.”

 

She knew Ruki was trying, and she appreciated it.

 

That didn’t stop her from giggling at her last sentence.

 

“Don’t laugh.”

 

“You suck at words, Ruki-chan.”

 

“It’s _just_ Ruki, you know that - and was I was saying...I mean, even if you aren’t at my house, you can call me, at any hour, I mean it.”

 

She feels safer this way, she doesn't know if Ruki’s presence will be enough to keep the nightmares away — she knows she is at a better place that she was when she was ten, but now she feels that she might get even better.

 

“Thank you, Ruki. You're the best friend someone can have.”

 

Ruki didn't say anything, but by her smile (not a smirk or a grin, a smile) it was obvious that she didn't mind the title at all.

  
“Let's go to sleep, silly, before grandma calls us out.”


End file.
